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FOR many advertisers, the promise of the Internet lies in its ability to track and measure users’ responses, something that is generally impossible with television and print. But a new study concludes that advertisements can be effective even when they do not persuade users to click on them (technologyreview.com).

Responses to online ads vary depending on how people store memories — either explicitly or implicitly, according to Chan Yun Yoo of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. Explicit memory, according to Mr. Yoo’s analysis, stores specific information like slogans, Web addresses or attributes of products. Implicit memory is unconscious, and is set off later, for example, when someone browses store shelves.

“All ads had the same level of impact in the unconscious explicit memory, however, whether or not they’d been clicked,” Andrew Schrock writes in Technology Review.

The findings suggest that Internet banner ads can work about as well as ads in traditional media. “Click-through rates, which represent the percentage of people who clicked on an ad after viewing it, might be useful to determine whether an ad elicited an immediate response,” Mr. Schrock writes. “But ad impressions — that is, the number of times an ad is displayed — might be a better measure of the impact required to build a brand image.”

We Care, But Not Really Americans have the “right” opinions on environmental issues, but “they don’t really care,” concludes Matthew Yglesias, a blogger and editor for the Atlantic Monthly (matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com). He says he reached this conclusion after perusing the results of a report from the research and strategy firm American Environics and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

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Alex Eben Meyer

The report, “Energy Attitudes,” found that 69 percent of voters would support a candidate with whom they disagreed on environmental matters and that there are six issues, including gay marriage, abortion and taxes, that are more important to them (american-environics.com).

Even people who described themselves as “environmentalists” put other issues higher on their priority lists. The upshot of the report, Mr. Yglesias writes, “is that while there’s public eagerness to do something about global warming, it’s very tenuous, and people are rabidly opposed to anything that would increase energy costs.”

Saving Your Bacn Over the last week, a new Web 2.0 buzzword was born: “bacn.” Bacn is not spam; rather, it refers to messages — e-mail newsletters, Facebook friend requests, Twitter updates and the like — that are wanted but not needed. “Notifications you want. But not right now,” is the blogger Andy Quayle’s succinct definition (techburgh.com).

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By most accounts, the term was coined — or at least gained traction — during last weekend’s PodCamp Pittsburgh event (podcamppittsburgh.com).

On his blog, Eric Skiff offers possible solutions, which amount to smart e-mail filtering and personal discipline. “Once or twice a day while I’m taking a ‘brain break’ I’ll flip through my labels and take care of any pending friend requests, comments, and any other bacn that’s come in during the day,” he writes (glitchnyc.com).

Already, a Web site, bacn2.com, has appeared to help “spread awareness” of bacn and to help people cope.